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Presidents' Day Hangman Words
Presidents' Day hangman words with US presidents' surnames, civic terms and history vocabulary. Play online or print a free classroom sheet with answers.
Read the word list
Presidents' Day sits in the middle of the school year, and this list is built for the social studies lessons that go with it. It names well-known presidents by surname, from Washington and Lincoln to Roosevelt and Kennedy, and adds the civic vocabulary students meet in a government unit: election, ballot, congress, constitution, veto and inauguration.
Surnames are a real spelling test. Roosevelt has a double o and Eisenhower starts with ei, a pair students often reverse, and Jefferson has a double f. The civic words are equally varied: vote and oath are short and quick, while constitution and inauguration are long and carry several patterns at once. Phrases such as oval office and bill of rights give group games a recognizable shape, and they work as a light review before a quiz.
62 entries. Our solver needed 2.3 wrong guesses on average: 30 easy, 23 medium and 9 hard. The toughest is law (12 misses), the quickest eisenhower (0).
- president Easy · 1
- washington Medium · 2
- lincoln Medium · 3
- jefferson Easy · 1
- adams Medium · 4
- madison Easy · 1
- monroe Medium · 3
- jackson Medium · 2
- roosevelt Easy · 1
- truman Medium · 3
- eisenhower Easy · 0
- kennedy Medium · 3
- reagan Easy · 1
- grant Hard · 5
- election Easy · 1
- ballot Medium · 4
- vote Hard · 9
- congress Easy · 0
- senate Medium · 3
- capitol Medium · 3
- constitution Easy · 0
- democracy Easy · 1
- republic Easy · 1
- liberty Medium · 3
- executive Easy · 0
- cabinet Medium · 4
- inauguration Easy · 0
- oath Hard · 5
- office Medium · 3
- term Hard · 5
- veto Hard · 6
- treaty Easy · 1
- amendment Easy · 1
- monday Hard · 5
- february Easy · 1
- holiday Easy · 1
- nation Easy · 1
- leader Easy · 1
- history Medium · 2
- portrait Easy · 1
- penny Hard · 5
- dollar Easy · 1
- citizen Medium · 3
- government Easy · 0
- freedom Medium · 2
- law Hard · 12
- courage Medium · 2
- speech Easy · 0
- candidate Easy · 0
- campaign Easy · 1
- white house Medium · 4
- oval office Medium · 4
- bill of rights Hard · 7
- founding fathers Easy · 0
- vice president Medium · 2
- electoral college Easy · 0
- commander in chief Easy · 1
- state of the union Medium · 3
- supreme court Easy · 0
- abraham lincoln Medium · 3
- george washington Easy · 0
- first lady Medium · 3
Words worth a closer look
- presidentFrom the Latin praesidere, meaning to sit before or preside over. The word is used for many leaders, but the title has been used in the US since 1789.
- eisenhowerTen letters with five vowels, so it opens quickly. The traps are the ei at the start and the enhower ending.
- lincolnAbraham Lincoln was the sixteenth president and, at about six feet four inches, is usually listed as the tallest. Seven letters with only two vowels, so it plays harder than it looks.
- vetoLatin for I forbid. The president can use a veto to reject a bill passed by Congress. Four letters, two vowels, quick to solve.
- constitutionWritten in 1787 and still the basis of US government. Three t's and two n's, so a correct t fills three spaces at once. The tion ending is the pattern to teach.
- washingtonGeorge Washington was the first president, serving from 1789 to 1797. The ing in the middle and the ton ending make for a steady mid-level word.
- inaugurationTwelve letters, seven of them vowels, so it opens fast. The ura in the middle and the tion ending are the late fills.
- congressThe legislative branch, made up of the Senate and the House of Representatives. Eight letters with a double s at the end.
Using this list in class
Presidents' Day is a good prompt for a short research project. Each student draws a president's surname from a hat, plays the hangman round with it, then looks up three facts. Upper elementary classes can use the civic words as a vocabulary pre-test before a government unit.
The federal holiday is officially called Washington's Birthday and falls on the third Monday in February, which is a nice detail for a morning meeting. For spelling, group the surnames by pattern: double letters (jefferson, roosevelt, congress), vowel pairs (eisenhower, kennedy) and short names that are easy to forget (grant, adams). Younger students can stay with president, vote and oath.
Print a Presidents' Day Hangman worksheet
Eight puzzles on one US Letter page, with a clue, letter blanks, an empty frame to draw in, an alphabet strip to cross off and circles to count misses. Page two is the answer key.
Need another sheet?
Draw eight different words from this list, right here. Same layout, new answer key.
Keep going
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